Appearance: While he may not have inherited his father’s flashy blue hair, Aaron’s most certainly not bad looking. In fact, one might say the opposite is true. The years of hardcore training in the Violet City Gym most certainly paid off in Aaron’s case. His level of physical fitness is incredible, and noticeable when others see him. Standing at 5’11” and weighing a solid 170 lbs., Aaron’s dark grey pants fit loosely above his athletic sneakers. His fitted white sleeveless t-shirt lies underneath his cobalt blue winter vest, which he always leaves unzipped.

His steely blue eyes are highlighted by his jet-black hair, cut short and styled so as to never cover his forehead. Between his eyes, symmetrical features and strong jaw line, Aaron can give the initial impression of mystery and intimidation, but his charming smile is all the assurance one needs to see before realizing Aaron means no harm.

Personality: Aaron always means well. Raised by what one might call a conservative family, Aaron is one of most courteous young men you’ll ever meet. Honest and noble in all his endeavors, he has a hard time telling anything that’s not the truth. While some might see this as a refreshingly quixotic trait, others may interpret this lack of a social filter as jarring and sometimes just plain rude. Because of his sheltered upbringing, he’s likely to blurt out something taboo just as often as is likely to show his authentically compassionate and empathetic side to others. To him, it’s all the same—he has a hard time differentiating between the two. He’s aware of this flaw in his nature—being too honest with people—and he’s trying to get better. It’s just going to take time.

As a child, Aaron spent his days putting on a façade of seriousness for his father and the gym trainers, but that’s something he’s trying to forget. From his time at the gym, he has retained the discipline and strong work ethic needed to become a great pokemon trainer, but underneath all that he’s a fun-loving optimist who loves nothing more than to crack jokes. One might imagine how this particular trait and his radical honesty don’t always work the together in harmony. His pokemon have helped him come out of his shell a lot and show this jovial side of him, but he’s still more reserved than he’d like to be. Because of how sheltered he was growing up, Aaron never had many friends of his own age besides the other gym leaders’ children who all lived far away, so it does take some time before he is willing to take risks and open up to people. On the flipside, once he does let you into his world, he’s fiercely protective of his friends, and would do anything for those he cares about. Aaron’s a keeper—just as long as you can stand him.

There are few things that can really set Aaron off, but he despises nothing more than being thought of as incompetent. He’s a very intelligent young man, maybe not socially aware all the time, but he is very bright. If anyone ever suggests that his honesty and truthfulness is a crutch for naivety and immaturity, or that he’s incapable of doing something, then they have a whole world of hurt coming to them.

Oh, and one more thing: Aaron’s afraid of heights. Terrified. When he was very little he fell from his dad’s Pidgeot when they were flying, and he has never flown a pokemon since then. One might think that would cause a rift between father and son, and it most certainly did.

Biography: Growing up the child of a gym leader is never easy. The constant stress. The overwhelming pressure. The insurmountable expectation to succeed. Falkner never made it easy for Aaron, who only saw eye-to-eye with his dad when he didn’t know any better. Aaron had great respect for the man and what he represented, he always did, but they were fundamentally different people. One a traditionalist, the other a forward-looking thinker. The problem was that Falkner sought to raise his own flesh and blood as he was brought up himself. Falkner, who revered his own father for making the flying type so well respected, spent his childhood training like the sages in Sprout tower—devoting his life to the strictest of disciplines. His rules were simple: days were to be divided between silent meditation, hardcore training, and studying. Naturally, Falkner always expected his son to follow suit.

Aaron tried, he really did. As a young boy, he learned tremendously from his father's rigorous training methods but as he grew older, Aaron began to question his father’s fundamentalist methodology and practices. Aaron was friends with some other gym leaders' children, notably Jasmine's daughter Jayne, and none of them led such traditional lifestyles as the Zephyrs. Advances in technology and modern conveniences were helping humans forge greater connections with their pokemon. They seemed to help both trainer and partner in a symbiotic relationship, so why was Falkner so against technology and the modern age?

Aaron just couldn’t wrap his head around it. His mother was always sympathetic to Aaron and encouraged him to tell his dad what was on his mind, but the more Aaron questioned his father, the more enraged Falkner became. Aaron’s hard work and dedication was supposed to pay off when he turned 13—the day that his father had promised him his first pokemon. One could only imagine Aaron’s heartbreak when his father revealed to him that because he had questioned his authority and strayed from the path, he would not only not get pokemon, but he would not continue his training. Falkner would not stand for even the slightest insubordination, and wanted to teach his son a lesson he would never forget. Heart-broken, Aaron ran right out of Violet City to where he knew his father wouldn’t go looking for him—Dark Cave.

Aaron could not believe how harshly his father had reacted to his innocent questioning his training methods. It was as if thinking was a punishable crime. His life would never be the same again, he knew that much. Not after his father had publicly humiliated him in front of the entire Violet Gym. As the salt of his tears filled Aaron’s senses, he noticed that he had ventured far too far into Dark Cave. He had nothing on him besides the pokeball that was supposed to hold his new partner. Bumping and tripping over rocks every step he took, Aaron realized any attempt to find his way out would inevitably lead him further into the darkness.

As he cried his tears of frustration, Aaron noticed he was not alone. More specifically, he was not the only one crying. Looking up, Aaron saw a large, bat-like creature trying to fly around the pitch-black cave, whimpering as it smashed into stalagmite after stalagmite. Before he knew it, the being slammed right into Aaron, sending them both flying to the ground. The being held onto Aaron with all it’s might, crying desperately into his chest. Bewildered, Aaron took note of the pokemon’s large wings and glowing white eyes. He had never seen anything like this before in Dark Cave, and from the looks of it this creature was in more distress than Aaron. After calming the pokemon, Aaron was finally able to make out what it’s previously indistinguishable cry was: Gligar. He had heard of Gligars before. They were found not far from Dark Cave—just south of Blackthorn City on Route 45—but never did they venture into the caves (that was Zubat territory, and the two bat species did not get along). Aaron only knew so much because these were flying type pokemon which his father loathed. Fake flyers he would call them, as they didn’t have the beautiful, regal feathers all his pokemon had. His conservative father discriminated against any kind of flying pokemon which was not 100% bird through and through, but he had taken the precaution of teaching his son about all flying types, including Gligars, as he was supposed to become the master of all things flying (even if that meant disregarding more than half of flying types as illegitimate pokemon).

Looking down as his newfound friend, Aaron giggled at his father’s narrow-mindedness. How could this flying pokemon be any less worthy than the ones at Violet City Gym? Aaron knew this could not just be coincidence. He was supposed to meet this Gligar—it was fate. Because of the enforced meditation he had endured as a child with the monks in Sprout Tower, Aaron was always a believer in all things mystical, and this sure as hell was one of those moments. As both of their breathing slowed, the Gligar suddenly licked Aaron affectionately as it snuggled into him. Aaron still couldn’t see a thing, but he felt better now. Safer now. Soon the pair drifted off to sleep together, their breathing in synch the entire time. Aaron dreamt of the Gligar with its family, and how when they were gliding down the mountainous Route 45 he got separated from his family and found it’s way into the Dark Cave, only to be trapped by it’s labyrinth of darkness. Eventually, as the dream ended and morning came, Aaron saw the faintest light emitting from the entrance of the cave. Aaron couldn’t lift the sleeping Gligar, so he gently tapped it with his empty pokeball, which immediately pinged as if to signal the beginning of something new, incredible, and exciting. Aaron walked confidently out of the cave into the bright morning sun. Things were different now. Things would change.

From that day on, Aaron and Gligar were partners. Aaron took the jovial Gligar back to his home to show his mother—a kind woman who had always managed to shield him from the worst of his father’s rage with her motherly affection and devotion—and cleaned Gligar up immediately. Falkner always had prohibited the usage of Pokemon Centers—another modern convenience that would be a distraction no doubt. ”Don’t get hurt in the first place!” he would say. Aaron’s decision to take Gligar on as his partner devastated Falkner. While he wanted to teach his boy a lesson, there was still hope for him to partner with a majestic bird like Pidgeot or Swellow, but not some stupid bat! Air gliding was not flying, and he could never even fly the damned thing! Falkner no longer treated Aaron like a father should a son, he had lost that privilege with this turn of events.

Falkner's rejection of Aaron was more severe and harsh than he could have ever imagined. After a few months of trying to find his own way, Aaron tried to return to his father's training regimen, but he was scoffed and laughed at by the entire Violet City Gym. In their eyes, he was weak, incompetent, and incapable of achieving what he was supposed to be. While Aaron’s mother would eventually calm Falkner down and convince him to allow Aaron to continue the training, he permitted it begrudgingly. Aaron didn't want to give up—he wanted nothing more than to earn his father's respect and love, but for the next few years Aaron lived in a strange state of detachment and isolation. The environment could be described as nothing but toxic—whenever Aaron and Gligar tried to do something right, he was laughed at because their performance never had the strict precision Falkner demanded. Gligars cannot fly—only glide—which was the root of the problem. Even though they kept up with the other birds, it was impossible to achieve all that they were achieving. This humiliation did not break Aaron, it hardened him, making him all the more determined to win his father’s respect.

Falkner’s rejection of Aaron only ignited his fire to work harder and regain his father’s trust, but alas on the inside he always struggled between wanting his father’s approval and forging his own path, one that did not include the fundamentalist teachings of this gym. It didn’t help that father and son would only interact at the most basic level, greeting and grunting Aaron from time to time, but eventually Falkner just focused on his devoted gym trainers, and left his son to his own devices altogether. Despite his best efforts, Aaron never managed to adequately meet his father's expectations—how could he when the bar was set so impossibly high? As Aaron grew older he began to question his father more radically, soon realizing just how limited and sheltered his existence was. Aaron soon started calling out his father and questioning him regularly. Aaron did not rebel against his father to be insubordinate, rather because he was realizing that his father’s methods were old-fashioned, outdated, and inefficient. He wanted change.

It reached the point that Falkner would regularly throw Aaron out of training for insubordination which really meant that he was questioning his father’s traditionalism. At 17, Falkner saw his son as nothing more than an embarrassment to the Zephyr name with that pathetic bat by his side. Having reached his breaking point, Falkner resolved that his son could not succeed him if he didn't follow the traditional, proven, conservative methods he had been raised with. Never once could Falkner have fathomed that his son would not follow in his footsteps and lead the Violet City Gym once he retired. In front of the entire gym, Falkner banished Aaron and Gligar, not to return until he understood what true dedication to training really meant. Aaron had expected this would happen eventually—things had been getting particularly brutal the past few months—and he had prepared for this very moment. He had become so fed up with the mundane operations of his training that he decided that he was going to stop going to the gym training sessions altogether. While his father expected him to go meditate at the Sprout Tower until he turned old and gray, Aaron had another plan. He would not wait for his life to being any longer. Aaron and Gligar had mastered everything there was to be learned from gliding around the Violet City Gym. There was so much more to be learn outside of the gym, Aaron believed, so much more that could make him a better trainer.

After saying goodbye to his loving mother, Aaron headed for the port at New Bark town. Along the way there, Gligar and he managed to subdue a Yanma and add it to their team. Upon his arrival in New Bark Town, Aaron took the first boat out of the Johto Region. He didn't care where he was going, he just needed to get out. Aaron knew that by taking part in the Johto league wouldn't prove anything to his father because Falkner was so familiar with how lax those gyms were run. No, Aaron would have to go somewhere new and unfamiliar. From the looks of his ticket, “Furoh” was the destination, and he couldn’t be any more excited.

Class: Trainer

Starting Pokemon:

(M) @ lv. 10

(F) @ lv. 10

Items: A few of those horrible herb potions that make your pokemon hate you. The only kinds that Falkner ever let the trainers use at the gym. And pokeballs. Duh.